Gary Johnson: Yeovil Town can dictate play at Preston North End

Yeovil Town can travel to Preston North End tomorrow confident that they can dictate play, according to manager Gary Johnson.

The Glovers head north on the back of four straight npower League One defeats, but buoyed by an improved performance against Sheffield United.

Despite failing to blunt the Blades, Johnson said possession statistics were impressive and something they would have to replicate to stand a chance against another of the division’s big guns.

“What we did on Saturday was give our boys a bit of confidence that if they want to the can keep their possession against strong sides,” he said.

“The stats showed that our ball retention was very good and you are going to have to do that against those top teams.”

Johnson also warned his squad not to be fooled by Preston’s recent defeats to Walsall and Middlesbrough, drawing attention to their 5-0 home demolition of Hartlepool United.

He said: “It is always going to be a tough match, they are a big club. Graham Westley has now got his group so what he says goes. There is nobody in the corner saying ‘that’s rubbish’ because he has got players in that believe in what he does and that is his strength.

“It is a tough regime and he generally gets the boys through it. We will have a tough game. They lost the away game at Walsall, they lost at home to Middlesbrough but that is a Championship side even though they made changes.

“The one we have got to be careful of is that they beat Hartlepool 5-0 at home the week before. If we want to stand back and watch them, they can play.”

The boss added he was keen to bring more competition to his squad by signing more loanees after signing Fulham defender Daniel Burn this week.

“We will keep looking, we have managed to do some good business,” said Johnson. “If we can do good business we can have a couple more players in total for competition.

“If we get that competition we will gain with the ones that enjoy the competition and we may lose some who don’t but that’s human nature.”